By Dave Airhart
Opinion
The views expressed in this column represent the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of the editorial board.
Kent State sophomore Dave Airhart is a former U.S. Marine. In 2003, his tour of duty included service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanemo prison in Cuba. He received an honorable discharge in 2004.
The secrets are out about the military, war and the inevitability of political corruption and governmental hidden agendas behind the pursuit of wars. Our nation in particular is keenly aware of these things. We read about the cruelty and misery of war in books, we hear music about it on the radio, and observe graphic photos and paintings illustrating the horrors of war.
Most significantly in America, we view movies about the tragedies of war. Motion pictures about the Vietnam War, such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Born on the Fourth of July, graphically display the pain and suffering that result from the exposure to combat. These different artistic forms show the true inhuman nature of war and our government’s indifference towards the lives of the individuals within our nations military. Despite the fact that everyone in our country is aware of these things, tens of thousands of Americans join the military every year, many of them joining combat specific units such as the infantry.
With our nation’s awareness of the realities of war, one might assume there to be a national reluctance to join the American military. Why is this not so? Why do so many young men join combat specific Military Occupational Specialties (M.O.S’s) each year? The aspects behind this occurrence are even more bizarre than the occurrence itself, even more horrific and perhaps even more terrifying than war alone. These aspects I know well, for it was these aspects that inspired me to join the Marine Corps infantry, and it was these characteristics of mine that I found in abundance amongst the other Marines in my unit.
These characteristics can be described through a variety of short phrases: the love of misery, a quest for romanticism, a suicidal/homicidal personality, and in general a hyper- masochistic mind set. It is not simply a coincidence that these personality types are found in abundance in today’s combat related military units. I will attempt to explain this phenomenon with the knowledge that I have accumulated over the years of being a misery pursuing individual, surrounded by other like minded people entertaining, in unison, our masochistic desires.
Patriots don’t join combat specific M.O.S’s anymore, they go to college and become politicians. Every one in America is aware of the suffering that ensues from being exposed to combat and just the military in general, in particular the Marine Corps and especially combat specific jobs such as the infantry. This leads to units such as these being filled with people intensely attracted to this sort of misery. Their character is of a most pure and extreme masochistic form; they join for their love of pain, misery, suffering, and even death. If they claim to join in defense of their nation, they do so to hide the truth, and to give their unusual desires a source of credibility. They join the Marine Corps infantry because there, their mental perversions are considered normal, even praise worthy. The old adage that “misery loves company” certainly holds true in the infantry.
In most contexts individuals such as this would be locked away in a prison or psychiatric hospital for acting on their unusual desires. However, in the Marines they will be honored by an entire nation as heroes—and even more so than company, misery loves sympathy. So if you cry for the pain endured by the veterans of this hideous war, let your tears be tears of joy—because they enjoyed every single minute of it.
Patriotism doesn’t make men kill and be killed - misery does. This is what the military promotes and inspires - the Marines fight wars for the sake of war, not freedom or democracy. Marines don’t care about George Bush or any of those country western songs that talk about putting boots in Iraqis’ butts. They like misery, plain and simple, and this war will not stop on their accord - it has got to stop on ours. Let us start by removing the military recruiters from our campus, before the entire campus is infected with their disease.